LAWN TENNIS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 18, 22 January 1916, Page 14

LAWN TENNIS

(By " Huka.")

CHEERS FOR SOLDIERS.

A few Saturdays ago saw some tennis soldiers leave for the front, and naturally it was expected that tennis players wouid get together and give tho boy 6 a good rally No doubt some did, but Others remained at play—fancy any man playing tennis whilst his tennis 6lub mates were marching away from the oity ! In future it would be welJ if all sports were oiosed down.on tho day that the troops leave, and surely it will not be asking in vain: Cheering ' position* are now established''by- the Town Hall and opposite the. Wair&rapa Farmers' Building, where "eheerere" will be welcomed. Tennia club committees would bo doing the right thing by closing their court* in, future when any troops are leaving As to sports other thau tennis—, well, surely the executive body of each sport will sets that players are made to realise that we are at war, and that the least pla.yere can do is to give up their sport op one day a. month to cheer the troops It is hard to march through! a silent crowd, and when any little band gives cheers the soldiers' faces light up at onoo. r THE BRITISH ADVANCE. A tennis player, 6orving in the Field Artillery, tellsoopfp the "great advance" In France 'as follows:—"Four brigades Of Field Artiltery arrived in France tome tori days before the big attack We all joined up after disembarking, and after a day at ft rest camp took road 6h route for ■'•oiifcwhere.'- We were told nothing. Ollr days at. first consisted of long inarches, ending in a bivouac on the roadside or in, a field, but we'gradually came within sound, Of the guns. One night, about 12 o'clookj having, got ail the guns unliinbered, the horsed picketed, 'dined' ; under a, hodge-.with a tarpaulin' stretched over our. heads, and' ran races between. .the..'courses''- to. try to keep warm in .the ,oald drizzling rain, with'the major saying 'at intervals, -'We must carry -on,' an order Came, and in the pitch darkness we limbered up at' onco No lights and total sitence were enforced bj the captain of each battery. ! • . - .;. "It Was a difficult job collecting the horses, hitching them in,. packing, the mess cart and transport wagon, without so muoh as • striking a matoh, for it was a 'black' night But when artillerymen know their job nothing is impossible. Finally, after most, strenuous efforts, we got on to the road, and ebon found ourselves wedged into a gigantic procession of troops, 1 should say six miles long, the whole of : our divisional infantry in front of us, and a very famous brigade (no names allowed) behind us. .Then we were told we wore going into the firing line for the 'great push ' The French civilians en route were soon greeting u« with ex-. cited-yells of 'La Pousse! La Pousse 1' We marched all night and all the nest day, and as we went on tho roads got dreadfully congested with streams of wounded and transports coming down to meet us, and we had many, forced halts, with frantic.staff, officers riding up and down the line urging us to move, whan we, in the centre, were absolutely wedged. When night set in after this day great trials beset us, our mees-oart overturned completely with all our rations and cooking outfit, an axle oame, off the transport dart, and all our' kit Was left behind in the. mud; one banged into horses and carts, and all our horses got knocked about arid restive At one point we had ,to get down a steep crest The horses slid from top to bottom, and every second I thought the guns would overturn, but i^ spite of it being a struggling-, mass, horses, guns,' and ammunition wagons finally got to the bottom safely, but I held my breath as the ammunition wagons bumped down. It was wonderful how order oame out of the mixed-up mass The next order was for us—four Brigades of. Field Artillery—to detach ourselves (we were thon very near the firing line, and the commencement of the biggest battle of the war) and take up positions and dig in the guns This we only just accomplished by dawn, and the" next day the • battle was raging and the whole country side swept by shell of every' description, especially ,the roads Our infantry were in the thick of the fighting, and the artillery was going at high pressure all day Unfortunately our infantry suffered very severely, and the famous brigade spoken •of was pushed on rapidly to take up the attack, and 'we supported them in tho attack from start to finish, and were in continuous action .for six days. The first few days we were not spotted by the enemy, and all the shells which came our way were haphazard, searching the country-side, but it was a bombardment which never ceased. ■ The General and CO had their headquarters in • a wrecked town, and no one at home could imagine the difficulty and danger of go-, ing, backwards and forwards from batteries to headquarters A single file nat out always, each one ten yards behind the other, so it was reckoned that one at least mitjht get through There was hardly a spot in the town not being shelled, one's respect wont up in leap* and bounds at the CO.'s courage and determination in living day and night there, so as to be in close touch with the infantry From the observation station I aaw the battle swaying backwards and' forwards, and then our infantry pushed through the town and on beyond, leaving detachments to deal with the .Germans hiding tin the cellars. Near my observation station I found a Hun of 16 years, who had been hiding under the German dead for two' days, terrified to death- I sent him to the rear The gunners and drivers were splendid, though it was their first time under fire -We had no sleep for six days, except an occasional -nodding Neither did, the horses have either harness or saddles off for the whole of that time; we were so close to the enemy that we knew that we might have to get away at a, moment's notice, and every gunner 'stood to' the guns, and every driver 'stood to' the horees during those six days.. Owing to my.senior officer being temporarily put ,in command of the brigade, I had the responsibility of < commanding my battery for five days in that action, and we were just' being relieved, and coming out for a rest when the Germans found our position) got our range, and 'coal-box' after 'opal-box' came down on; us. I was placed hors de» combat as we were limbering ,up to got away. Have since heard that the batteries got a.way with extraordinarily few casualties.' ..'••'■ . v ■ MISS MOLLA BJURSTEDT The Norse player, Miss Bjurstedt, visited the Paoifio Coast to get Mrs. Bundy's scalp; she succeeded) but wenj; down to Miss Myers in the championship, and was defeated in an exhibition match .by Miss Florence Sutton, a sister of Mrs. Bundy.

"Tsar Ferdinand must be taught a, lesson that,- though' the. Hohenzollern staff be strong, it may yet, pierce the hand which leans on, it," says the Telegraph. "Action is the great thingswift, determined, masterful action. By all means let the military strategist be given his chance." •'....